


Neighborly Duties

by necrospider



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: M/M, do jason and roy have jobs? who knows, jason has a pitbull named red after red hood fight me, kori is a cop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 20:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6344350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necrospider/pseuds/necrospider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based on this prompt : I adopted a kid and you help me take care of them all the time since we’re neighbors, but you came over and got so involved in the kid’s life so much they think that we’re both their parents instead of just me</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neighborly Duties

Jason wasn't really sure when the man moved in next door to him. One day it was just a twentysomething woman who he interacted with just enough to know her name, Kori, her job, a police officer, and that she wasn't seeing anyone, and the next day there was a man driving up in a beat-up jeep, parking it in resident parking, and going into her house. After that it seemed like the man was everywhere he went, flirting with Kori on the front porch, giving a little girl with black hair piggyback rides around the backyard, which, what? Both Kori and the man who he assumed was her husband or boyfriend or something, had red hair, a sharp contrast to the little girl's ponytails.

Kori was a lovely woman but their interactions were very limited, so he was very surprised when a sharp knock sounded on his door and he swung it open to reveal the red-haired man. He was definitely prettier up close, with his long hair tucked into a trucker cap and his flannel shirt unbuttoned just enough that the defined shape of his collarbone was poking out. His green eyes were hit by the sun just right so that the flecks of brown were visible and the lightest freckles Jason had ever seen dotted his cheeks. As the door swung open, the man's mouth spread into a wide smile.

"Hey, Jason, right? Kori said I could find you here?" His voice was so deep that Jason was distracted for a second but he realized that the man was waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, you're Kori's husband, aren't you?" The man laughed and Jesus Christ that was the best thing Jason had ever heard.

"She's not really my type if you know what I mean," The man winked at him, "I'm Roy Harper, I've been best friends with her since college."

"Nice to meet you, Roy Harper. What can I do for you?" Honestly he was being the most polite he'd ever been, too struck by the man's attractiveness to really concentrate on the conversation.

"Kori and I just got called to go home to Star City for the day on a family emergency. Can you watch Lian for an hour or so? Please, Kori said you would have a handle on things and I can't bring Lian back to the city."

"Lian?” The name sounded familiar but Jason couldn't place it.

"My daughter? About yea-high," Roy gestured at approximately waist level, "Black hair? Yells a lot?"  
  
If Jason thought about it, he probably should've put it together that Lian was the little girl, he did see her enough.

"Why not?" There go his plans to sit on the sofa watching reruns of the Simpsons until his brother Dick got into town. "She okay with dogs?"

Roy's face broke into a relieved grin. "She loves 'em. Thank you so much man, I owe you big time."

After that, anytime Roy needed a babysitter, he asked Jason. The two men began a casual friendship, mostly because Lian developed a love for Jason's dog, a grumpy black pitbull, named Red for reasons she had been unable to get from Jason. She also loved Jason and even Dick, who she had met the first time she was at Jason's and now demanded to see whenever he was in Gotham. He loved her and Jason did too. She was impossible to hate.   
  
Jason never found out what Roy and Kori had to do in Starling City and he never asked, figuring it was their business and not his. Lian seemed to know that something was wrong with Roy though, and often looked worried when plans for the future were discussed.

One night, as Roy picked her up from Jason's house, and she bounced out of his door with a light "Bye-bye JayJay!" Jason asked Roy to stay for a few minutes. They saw Kori open the front door and pull Lian in, and Roy collapsed onto Jason's couch.   
  
"Are you alright man? I've been trying to stay out of your business but you just look exhausted, and I think Lian can tell, it's worrying her, whatever it is." He really hadn't wanted to mention it, but the bags under Roy's eyes were darker than normal and a few hours ago he had asked Lian if she was excited to go to Gotham Elementary when school started in the fall and she had almost burst into tears.

"God, man I don't even know where to start." Roy spun himself into a sitting position on the sofa and Jason sat down on the recently vacated spot, looking expectantly towards the man. "Okay, so January of last year, my marriage kind of self-destructed. I realized I was gay, she told me she'd been cheating on me for months with the intern in her office, it was all bad. She's Lian's mom and we've been fighting for custody for almost a year. Jade won't give me full custody even though she knows she doesn't have time for Lian, not really. Instead of giving it up and just giving me full custody, she's insisting on going through this whole thing. We didn't want to tell Lian but she heard us yelling one night and then I just couldn't be there anymore. We're staying with Kori until I know what's going on enough to make a decision about housing."

"Shit, man. I expected shit but not that much, damn. Do you want a beer or something? Kori's got Li."

After that night, Jason and Roy were closer. Jason started coming over every few nights for dinner and Lian was overjoyed. For a while everything seemed like it would be okay.

Jason was never really given a ton of notice when Lian was coming over. Roy knew his work schedule and often Kori was available so when Roy needed him, he got a call maybe five minutes in advance, but this was awful, even for Roy. It was four AM and Jason woke to a banging on his bedroom door, accompanied by Dick’s yelling.

“Get the fuck out of bed, little wing. Your boyfriend needs you and he woke me up so this shit better be worth it.”

“Shut your damn mouth Richard, he’s not my boyfriend.” He rolled out of bed, pulling on an old shirt and thudding down the stairs. Red followed him halfheartedly, clearly unhappy about being awake. He flung the door open to reveal a rain-soaked Roy, his face dripping with either tears or water, and a slightly less soaked Lian, covered in her oversized blue raincoat. Her face was crumpled into an almost unrecognizable mask of sadness and his heart crashed to his feet.

“Oh my God, it’s so fucking cold, please get in here.”

“I can’t stay, I have to go, I have to not be here, can you please take her just for the weekend, Jay-bird, I have to go.”

Jason nodded, struck by the tears on Roy’s face. He’d never seen the man cry before and it was a shock to see someone that physically tough acting like a dog that had just been kicked. All he wanted to do was wrap the two of them in a blanket and make sure they were okay but he couldn’t do that, so he nodded and took Lian’s tiny hand in his. Roy knelt down infront of her and took her other tiny hand.

“Daddy’s gotta go for a few days, okay baby girl? You’ll get to hang out with JayJay and Red, you won’t even notice I’m gone. I’ll come back as soon as I can sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

She nodded solemnly and let him kiss her forehead, waving as he ran to the Jeep and pulled away with a screeching noise coming from the tires.

Suddenly, Lian’s arms were around Jason’s legs and she was hugging him. He wrapped an arm around her and felt the hot tears coming out of her eyes. He knelt down and put a hand on each of her shoulders, spinning her so she was facing him.  
“Do you want to talk about it, Li?”

She nodded and looked at him sadly. “Daddy and Mommy are finally gettin’ un-married, but Mommy called Daddy some mean things and now he's gotta go back to Star City to make sure he gets to keep me.” She buried her face in his shoulder. “I don’ wanna go live with Mommy! She's not as nice as Daddy n her pancakes aren't even close to as good as his. An’ if I went wi’ her, I'd have to leave you and you're my other daddy. I can't be away from both my daddies and stuck with her!”

This was the first Jason had heard of having a daughter but that wasn't the important thing about what Li told him. “What did she call him, do you remember what she said?”

Lian nodded calmly. “I can't tell you though because Daddy told me it's not a nice word an’ that it's only used by mean people who think that who he is is wrong, so I can't tell you.”

Dick was leaning against the banister on the stairs and when he heard this he walked over and knelt next to them. “You wanna come upstairs with me? We can get you settled in the guest room. I bet if you ask real nice, Red will even sleep near you so he can guard you.” Lian gave Dick her hand and stood up, letting him lead her to the stairs. Jason rocked back onto his heels, resting his head on the wall behind him. Did Lian really believe he was her father? Did she want him to be? Did Roy want him to be? And was Jade’s case reaching such a desperate point that Roy, the strongest man Jason knew, was reduced to crying on his neighbor’s porch in the middle of the night?

There was nothing for him to do but lock the front door again and head up the stairs, lying down on his bed with the lights out. Finally, sleep took him.

Lian was clearly upset for the new day but whenever she was asked what was wrong she wouldn't tell either of them, so they spent the day lounging around the TV, watching Hannah Montana with the lights off.

Roy came back the next day, smiling for once, his long hair brushed into a low ponytail and wearing a suit. When Jason opened the door, Lian launched herself at Roy and he caught her, laughing. “Guess what, baby girl?”

Lian’s smile was so large that it could've lit up the street. “Yeah, Daddy?”

“I get to keep you!” Roy made eye contact with Jason across Lian’s head. “We get to stay!”

Jason couldn't stop the tears that leaked out of his eyes and the smile that spread across his face. “For real?”

Roy nodded at him. “For real.”

Jason was there in one long stride, pulling Roy and Lian into his arms and holding them as tightly as he could. He wasn't sure when it had happened but these two were his family, as close as Dick was and he would've missed them if they left.

Red danced around their feet as Lian beamed up at them and Roy brought his face close to Jason’s, almost touching, and whispered in his low voice, “We get to stay.” Their lips met and Dick applauded from the other side of the room.

He had a family now, not just his brother, but a daughter, and now something else too. He didn't know what Roy was yet, but he was important and beautiful and everything Jason had ever needed.

(Roy and Jason got married a few years later with Lian acting as a flower girl. Roy and Lian moved in with Jason and Red and they have dinner with Kori every Friday night.)


End file.
